At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, my favorite card is Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Now let me explain...
There's plenty of hate around Jace, both in terms of $$$ and power. Still though, I think it represents something we don't see as much of anymore, and something that I think people enjoy.
I like that Wizards decided to just go a little crazy and say "You know what? Screw it, we're going to blow it up and create the most powerful planeswalker the game has seen and probably will ever see. Three abilities? Pfft, give it four! Make ALL of them awesome!"
I feel like Wizards is afraid to create crazy cards anymore. How often do people look at some new powerful card and think "man, it's like they ran to the 1 yard line, stopped, and then said 'good enough!'" I like that they went crazy even if it meant banning the card in multiple formats. I like that they decided to make it the poster child of Magic in terms of artwork and power. I like that they revealed it a puzzle piece at a time, letting fans salivate over the abilities. "OMG, is that Brainstorm on a stick?" "Holy crap, he can unsummon too?!"
I think it meant something to the game in general, no matter how broken it was. It said that Wizards could still go a little nuts. It proved that the game could still be broken, resulting in the first Standard ban in a long time.
Love it or hate it, I feel like Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the first card printed in a long time that had the same notoriety and fame as the cards in the Power Nine.
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- The Greendale Human Being
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Apr 3, 2013
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on The Stack, Ability Resolution, and Checking ConditionsPosted in: The Greendale Human Being BlogQuote from SpikexNow, there is something which happened to me at a tourney which I dont understand. My opponent was playing restoration midrange and I was playing R/G Tron. I play Karn Liberated, knowing I have priority over his direct damage, I exile his only source of red mana - a Steam Vents. He "responds" by playing Lightning Bolt on my Karn - I told him I had priority, and he was confused so I called the judge. The judge said that my opponent could, indeed, add the bolt to the stack though it wouldnt resolve before Karn's ablity of exiling the Steam Vents did(the judge added that my opponent could also tap for red, float R, then bolt Karn when his ability had resolved. This I didnt appreciate becuase the judge isnt supposed to tell my oppenent his plays). This is what confuses me: If the bolt resolves before Karn' ability does, yet the cost of loyalty counters on Karn goes down to 3 because his ability is payed for wouldnt the bolt resolve first, since it was added second to the stack, Karn is at 3, hit for 3 then dies before his ability could resolve(since the targets have been altered as you descirbe in this entry)? This would mean that direct damage can kill planeswalkers before their prioritarian ability can even resolve making the whole rule about planeswlakers having priority completely moot and useless. In my opinion, the judge was wrong here, and my opponent couldnt cast lightning bolt, except by floating the R, the playing the bolt after the land was exiled. What are your thoughts on this?
The judge was indeed wrong and doesn't understand how the stack works.
In the situation you mentioned, your opponent can tap land targeting and add red, or even float it for that phase (remember mana empties between phases). At that point, Karn's ability has been added to the stack. If your opponent elects to cast a bolt, the bolt is on top of the stack (last in first out).
At that point, Bolt resolves first, killing Karn. However, that doesn't remove Karn's ability from the stack. All targets for the ability are still legal (the Steam Vents) and so the ability resolves because checking on resolution passes. The target hasn't been altered at all; it was and still is the Steam Vents. Karn doesn't need to be present for the ability to resolve.
Your opponent can keep that red mana floating until that phase ends. Once you enter either combat or the end phase it's gone though.
A simliar situation is true for abilities when creatures enter the battlefield. Say you play Vendilion Clique on your main phase. Clique's ETB ability goes on the stack. Your opponent may Bolt the Clique in response to the ability, but even with Clique gone the ability still resolves. -
May 28, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Pyromancer Ascension: Post-Banning/M12.If you've already cast a Volt Charge, if you have a PA on the field it would get a counter on the second Volt Charge and then a second when it resolves from the proliferate.Posted in: Terrapin Guts Blog
Staggershock and Volt Charge make for an active Ascension on their second cast. -
Mar 3, 2011
The Greendale Human Being posted a message on Tezzerator 2.0Does Throne of Geth make sense in the Jace/Tezz/Koth variant?Posted in: NeoItems Blog
I'm thinking it can provide some extra backing in the form of:
- It can get Jace out of bolt/slag range if you brainstormed with him when he hit the field
- It can get Koth out of Galvanic Blast range if he's only at 4
- It can get Koth's ultimate to fire the second turn he's out
- It can get Tezz's ultimate to fire earlier/fire without losing him earlier (could be good if you need the life)
- It can pump the chalice
- It can be a 5/5 beater for Tezz
I think it *might* be worth using over the Opal since it can pump the chalice and keep Sphere of the Suns around longer. Contagion Clasp could also be good, but I think it's too slow for the aggro approach. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
It's also a green black infect deck. It's also one pro player, so I guess you got me on the technicality aspect. Meanwhile, Turtenwald/Ross/Finkel/Budde/Silvestri/Svi/Huey/Duke/Cuneo all run a set of Probes.
Look at the lists of PT FRF:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/pro-tour-fate-reforged#online
Again, I'm calling out the statement that "poor to mediocre" players use Probe whereas it's the popular choice among lists the Pros have run.
Infect was better without Probe than with it pre ban.
I'm genuinely confused by this statement...
First of all, this seems at least a little contingent on your meta. My meta is predominantly Jund, Grixis and Burn. Infect is a bad choice there, and Infect without Probe is an even dicier proposition.
Second, I don't recall seeing a pro list that eschewed the Probes pre ban. If you're calling them poor to mediocre then I've no clue what to say in response.
Third, in an open meta in a large tournament, being able to see what your opponent is on turn 1 before they've played anything should not be tossed aside as a noob crutch. If you see Jund across the table from you, and they kept a hand with discard but not 1 drop removal, you're probably playing the Elf on T1 instead of the Hierarch which can mean the difference between winning and losing. In a deck that runs 12 creatures with 1 toughness to win with (Hierarch/Arbor rarely close things out), keeping that creature alive is of the utmost importance.
So kind of like the stock market. Which is a form of investment.
You know, I hadn't really considered the fact that Jund's best matchups just got significantly worse, and it's worst matchups just got a significant boost since. Maybe if the next major top 8 is 3 Tron, 3 Bant Eldrazi, 2 Valakut, they'll do a Bluthian "I've made a huge mistake."
When it can easily cost people ~$1000 to buy into a tier 1 deck, it's awfully difficult to divorce yourself from the "investment" aspect of it.
Now all we need to see is some kind of countermagic with a similar templating and all will be right in the world. Something akin to Prohibit with Revolt.
Also interesting is that it's a throwback to the Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast disparity. Rarely if ever makes a difference; opens up very narrow lines of play like targeting something that was Makeshift Mannequin'd or something with Illusion templating. I suppose it also makes a different in that it could trigger Kira, Great Glass-Spinner's ability even if it doesn't resolve, clearing the path for other removal.
Nope, never happened.
It's too bad black bordered Lords of Atlantis are so much more than the white bordered variants, particularly on the site I bought them from (I had loads of store credit).
Ultimately the motivation for this is also so that any one of us can pick up a deck and play it to practice with or against. While I could proxy things up, I kind of want to just build out the deck just to have it since I have the others already as well.
I've played against both Merfolk and E&T more than anything else; I've played E&T a little bit but not enough that I'd feel comfortable piloting it at anything beyond an FNM.
It seems a bit middling against Dredge for obvious reasons, Jeskai Nahiri has other ways to win, and Abzan Company seems like it's dwindling down significantly.
Also, it seems like we can race Dredge pretty handily if need be (though things get awkward with Darkblast).
My store is lousy with Burn and Jund so I backed off of playing Infect as a result. I'm wondering if I can improve my sideboard a bit by freeing up two slots and including something like Pulse of Murasa in the board on top of the Finks.
I've been cycling out a lot of chaff from my collection for store credit and using the staples I have (and acquiring more of them with said store credit) to just build up a gauntlet of decks for my friends and I to use. My current arsenal includes:
Burn
Jeskai Nahiri
Jund
Infect
Bant Eldrazi
Dredge
Titanshift
RG Tron
Ad Nauseam
Affinity
Ultimately we're using these to playtest and both improve our skills with our preferred decks and see if there's a secondary favorite we have.
I figure the two most common Aether Vial decks are Eldrazi Taxes and Merfolk (though I have some affection for Eternal Command as well, it's not exactly a contender in the format right now).
These decks obviously approach the game from very different angles, so I'm trying to figure out which would make the most sense to add to our arsenal.
For Merfolk I would need to get:
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejery
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Harbinger of the Tides
For Eldrazi Taxes I would need to get:
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Path to Exile
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Eldrazi Displacer
The goal is to have no mainboard overlap across the arsenal in terms of the number of copies of a card we have and the number we need (for example, I have 8 Hierarchs for Bant Eldrazi and Infect). There are sideboard cards that I have plenty of that could be shared among decks if need be.
While I need more Merfolk pieces, if I go with white-bordered Lords they're noticeably cheaper, and the deck is likely the more competitive of the two.
That said, the cards I need for Eldrazi Taxes are used more broadly in the format.
Curious to hear what people think and why.
Round 3 my opponent was playing mill. I fetched, cast Faithless Looting, and he double Archive Trap'd me in response. I don't think I've ever laughed directly at an opponent's face game 1 turn 1 before. I proceeded to put the top twenty six cards of my library into the yard, and my opponent's reaction was certainly a Bluthian "I've made a huge mistake."
Most of my losses were probably due to often losing 6 life a game to the fetch/shock base. Occasionally it was relevant to fetch to get a Ghast back, but now I can't help but wonder if a rainbow base with more fast lands and then a set of Gemstone Mine and set of Confluence would have helped.
I also had a few cases where Loaming for a Gemstone Mine would have been leagues better than just having fetches and shocks in the yard.
Has anyone run a single Reflecting Pool in the main as well? Doesn't seem like a terrible option.